A Cross Cultural Study of Hostility and Aggression
| Author | G. Santori,R.T. Green |
| Published date | 01 March 1969 |
| Date | 01 March 1969 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002234336900600102 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
A
CROSS
CULTURAL
STUDY
OF
HOSTILITY
AND
AGGRESSION
By
R. T. GREEN and
G. SANTORI
University
College
London
1.
Introduction
Hostile
feelings
and
aggressive
behav-
iour
appear
to
be
common
to
most,
if
not
all,
culture
patterns.
(Benedict
[2],
Mead
[18].)
Certainly
such
behaviour
is
to
be
found
among
all
the
major
eth-
nic,
national,
and
social
groups.
Many
of
our
child-rearing
practices
are
di-
rected
towards
socialising
these
impulses
within
the
family
and
in
relation
to
the
larger
society
we
meet
as
citizens.
(Dol-
lard
and
Miller
[7],
and
Berkowitz
[3].)
On
the
international
level
Freud
[10,
11,
12],
was
characteristically
forthright
about
the
central
importance
of
this
issue
for
understanding
the
root
causes
of
war.
Within
the
broad
framework
of
the
Western
European
culture
pattern
it
is
often
assumed
that
systematic
differen-
ces
exist
from
nation
to
nation.
(Duijker
and
Frijda
[8].)
These
beliefs
form
the
basic
of
national
stereotypes,
such
as
the
image
of
the
Englishman
as
cold,
aloof,
phlegmatic,
and
hypocritical;
the
German
as
ruthless,
thorough,
inflexible,
and
authoritarian;
the
Frenchman
and
Italian
as
excitable
and
with
proclivities
for
amatory
adventures.
Italians
are
also
popularly
supposed
to
be
lacking
in
the
characteristics
that
make
for
success
as
warriors.
Most
work
along
these
lines
has
fol-
lowed
the
pattern
set
by
Katz
and
Braly
[15].
See,
for
instance,
Child
and
Doob
[4],
Meenes
[19],
Eysenck
and
Crown
[9],
Gilbert
[13],
Prothro
[20],
Diab
[5],
[6],
Tajfel
et
al.
[23],
and
Rodriguez
Sa-
nabra
[22].
All
of
these
studies
have
used
the
basic
technique
of
providing
a
list
of
descriptive
terms
and
another
list
of
nationalities
and
asking
the
subject
to
ascribe
the
one
to
the
other
according
to
their
appropriateness.
The
general
conclusion
seems
to
be
that
the
stereo-
types
elicited
are
fairly
stable
over
pe-
riods
of
several
years
but
that
minor
shifts
occur
with
time
and
circum-
stances.
Moreover,
it
would
be
bordering
on
the
fatuous
to
suppose
that
these
na-
tional
stereotypes
are
fixed
in
other
ways.
In
all
probability,
the
image
of
the
‘typical’
Italian
as
seen
through
French
eyes
will
differ
in
several
important
re-
spects
from
that
subscribed
to
by
Ger-
mans.
Over
the
centuries
it
is
also
fairly
clear
that
these
national
stereotypes
have
shifted
considerably
as
the
fortunes
of
war
and
economics
have
moulded
peo-
ple’s
attitudes.
To
the
Elizabethan
Eng-
lishman
the
Spaniard
seems
to
have
foreshadowed
the
French
of
the
Napo-
leonic
era,
as
each
in
turn
represented
a
threat
to
British
interests
and
indepen-
dence.
As
for
the
warlike
Roman,
he
is
apparently
no
longer
to
be
found
in
Rome.
The
rationale
for
many
of
these
attri-
butes
being
accorded
to
first
one
and
then
another
nation
is
easy
enough
to
grasp,
depending,
as
it
does,
to
a
large
extent
on
the
halo
or
horn
effect:
mostly
the
latter,
if
history
is
anything
to
go
by.
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